Questions & Answers

General FAQs

What is DCS?

Dallas County Schools (DCS) is a county school district founded in 1846 that offers full service and/or supplemental student transportation services to other government entities, school districts, charter schools and private schools in and around Dallas County. DCS is one of the top student transportation fleets in the nation and operates a fleet of approximately 2,000 buses that transport more than 75,000 children to and from school safely each day.

What essential benefits does DCS provide to school districts in and around Dallas County?

DCS is known for providing dependable school bus transportation services; we also provide extremely valuable services such as Crossing Guards, School Resource Officers, Worker's Compensation (504) plan and the School Bus Safety Program.

In what ways is DCS working to combat the national bus driver shortage?

In 2016, School Bus Fleet Magazine revealed that 90% of districts in the United States face a bus driver shortage. In light of the national shortage, DCS leadership is focused on recruitment for this school year. DCS hosts regular job fairs at various locations throughout Dallas and the surrounding areas, along with partnering with other organizations to participate in their job fairs, such as the districts we serve and the Texas Workforce Solutions. In addition, DCS utilizes various mediums to communicate the ongoing employment opportunity of transporting students and the benefits of working for DCS, including: social media; online job boards; newspapers/magazines; radio; banner advertisements; bulk mailings; etc.

What if DCS “goes away”? How will our kids be transported to school?

There are uncertainties based on the language of the statute(s); however, it appears each school district served by DCS will have to hire and pay for bus transportation services from other vendors or create their own transportation department. (Please see Senate Bills 2065 and 1566)

What will be the financial and operational impact to districts and/or taxpayers?

What will be the financial and operational impact to districts and/or taxpayers?

Due to DCS’s 90 years of expertise in this field, DCS provides high quality and safe transportation services to user districts compared to our competitors. DCS saves the districts we serve millions of dollars each year compared to if they transported students themselves, whether in-house or using a private contractor.

In addition to our competitive rate, as a governmental entity and per state law, DCS levies a small tax* on certain properties within Dallas County. Currently, a portion of that tax goes directly to offset some of the transportation costs incurred by the user districts in Dallas County. Use of these funds are available to any school district in Dallas County that contracts with DCS for full-service student transportation services. However, if DCS “goes away,” none of the districts in Dallas County will receive the benefit of the tax collected on behalf of DCS, as it will be allocated for debt payments for many years then eliminated. The districts will have to come up with additional funds to cover the increased costs, which may force the districts to reallocate funds dedicated to student programs or raise taxes.

* $.01 per $100 assessed valuation property tax levied on Dallas County property (the statutory maximum). To put the DCS tax cost in perspective, for a home with a taxable value of $100,000 it would cost less than $10.00 annually. This is $0.83 per month, or less than the cost of one large soft drink per month.